Carefully tested drone operations provide us with a huge advantage over any other approach to stopping poaching in Africa.

Poachers operate under the cover of night, and until now, rangers have not had an effective way of finding them before they strike. Operating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with infrared cameras and GPS thermal imaging – of both animals and poachers – is sent back to the mobile command center. Operators rapidly forward location coordinates that will vector rangers into position, who arrive in advance, and intercept poachers before they strike. The animals walk away!

It works. Flying in one area where as many as 19 rhinos were killed each month, there have been no deaths – for more than six months – none at all.

The Air Shepherd approach is the only intervention that has been shown to literally stop poaching. We have a well-established track record, along with demonstrable proof that our drone program works. With an investment of US$ 2 million, tested over two years, 1200+ hours of flight time logged, we now say with confidence – where we fly, poaching stops!

Operations

We have assembled a world-class combination of sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, with sophisticated predictive analytical capabilities, plus a number of dedicated, well constituted organizations, teams on the ground, and work in close cooperation with respected reserve management organizations to launch a global effort that will staunch the horrible losses on the African continent.

We look for poachers using various analytical, predictive capabilities to determine animal behavior patterns (rhinos are quite different from elephants), as well as those of poachers. We use this proven analytical tool to predict where the threat to animals will come from, and then launch small drones with cameras to fly over these areas searching for the arrival of the poachers. Once potential poachers are identified, prepositioned rangers are directed to intercept the suspects before they have a chance to kill an animal.

Equipment

The aircraft appear to be big model airplanes, but they carry high resolution cameras for both daylight and nighttime infrared scanning, since most poaching is done at night. Hand launched, from operating altitude they can easily tell the difference between animals and humans, and send that real-time information back to the operating team on the ground. These electric aircraft fly for over 1.5 hours, they are clean, stealthy and can provide an eye-in-the-sky capability focusing on the paths where poachers will most likely be that evening.

In addition to infrared cameras, drones are equipped with GPS, autopilots, and data transmitting capability. With only a 6 ft. wingspan, they are autonomously controlled, able to see activity on the ground in real time, and can potentially transmit anywhere in world. In a nutshell, they are electric, silent, invisible, and effective!

Text, pictures and video from Air Shepherd website. All rights reserved.